The Perfect Start To Your Bali Vacation

We had just landed in Bali and gotten off our flight. The first thing we had in mind was the Visa which turned out to be a buttery smooth process as all you have to do is head to immigration and tell them the length of your stay which if less than 30 days will get you the Visa on Arrival without any problem. The next big thing that we had on our mind was the currency exchange which we fortunately found as soon as we crossed immigration as there are currency exchanges setup inside the airport. One thing to note though is that they offer a lower buy rate($1 = IDR 13400 whereas it was IDR 13800 outside) for your currency so what we would suggest is that convert the absolute necessary amount inside and head out. Next thing we had on our mind was the SIM cards which we again found inside the airport but were pretty expensive which led us to not buying it there.

After we were done with all of this, we headed out of the airport in search of a Blue Bird Taxi which is the most reliable and honest taxi service in the whole of Bali as it runs on meter. By happy chance we soon found a Blue Bird Taxi and asked him to take us to Jimbaran where we had our first villa booked. On the way we stopped and struck a deal for three SIM cards with unlimited data for IDR 225,000. We arrived at the location that AirBnb provided us and were kinda clueless on where exactly the villa was which is when we contacted the host and got the pictorial directions to the place. As soon as we entered the villa, we were mind blown by the sheer beauty of this place that we had acquired for just Rs. 5,194 for the night. We dropped our bags, freshened ourselves up and left to fill our starving bellies. Since we had no means of transportation, we started looking out for scooter rentals but to our dismay could not find any. Due to this, we hailed a Blue Bird Taxi and went to Rolling Fork which fell on the way to Uluwatu Temple which costed us IDR 100,000(taxi).

The food was outstanding but the prices were a bit on the expensive side as we spent IDR 827,000 for 6 people. Post that we had planned on heading to Uluwatu Temple but the sun had already set which is why decided against it and started walking in the direction of our villa as there were barely any vehicles traversing the road let alone taxis. About 15 minutes into the walk, a stranger stopped for us and offered to drop us to our villa for IDR 200,000 which was a relief as we were tired of walking.

After reaching the street where our villa was situated, we wandered around until we found a scooter rental. We started bargaining for the scooters as we were going to rent 3 of them for a period of 7 days and got the price from IDR 150,000 to IDR 100,000 a day. After getting the invoice and leaving one of our passports behind, we set out with the scooters and parked them at our villa.

We decided to head to McDonalds for some dinner which turned out to be a bad idea as the food was not as good as expected. Once we were done with this, we came back to our villa and chilled out in the swimming pool for quite some time after which we played some games to entertain ourselves. After we were done with the games, we retired to bed as we had an early start.

The next morning we left the villa at 8 AM and went to Nalu Bowls, Seminyak where we had the colourful breakfast bowls with a lot of fruits and Granola. This place is connected to Shelter Cafe where we had seating and some breakfast(The Big Bang and some other food) along with some fruit infused water. We spent quite a while here enjoying the food and ambience. Once we were done, we hopped onto our scooters and left for Ubud where we had our villa booked for the night.

It was about 12 PM when we reached the villa which again was very pretty overlooking rice fields. We dropped our bags at the villa and headed out to the Sacred Monkey Forest which was about 15 minutes away. The sanctuary is well maintained and the monkeys are pretty used to humans being around so there is no need for panic. During our time here we came across a monitor lizard which was unusual since even the monkeys were scared of it. The forest was a unique experience in itself and the entry costed us IDR 80,000 per person.

Once we were done with the monkey forest we left for lunch and ended up in Warung Babi Guling where we had some great pork dishes. The food is pretty tasty and affordable. The only issue is that this place does not serve vegetarian dishes which was a problem for some of us. Hence we even went to Watercress Cafe to compensate for the absence of vegetarian food. On completion of lunch, we rushed back to the villa, packed and left for Tirta Empul which was about 45 minutes away.

We arrived at Tirta Empul at 4:15 PM and headed straight for the entry but learned that we would need a Sarong in order to enter the temple. This would have become an issue if we would not have found the market that was close by. We rushed to the market and started bargaining to get a Sarong for the cheapest possible price. A couple of minutes of bargaining got us the Sarong for IDR 30,000 per piece which we thought was reasonable. Armed with the Sarong, we marched into the temple which holds a pool of holy water where people go to cleanse themselves. The pool and rituals were a sight to behold with people going through each water outlet, dipping their head into the water and having a sip of the holy water. Since the water was pretty cold, a few of us chose to stay back and just witness the ritual while the others participated in it. Once we were done with the ritual, we headed to the washrooms nearby to get changed and left the place.

On our way back to the villa, we rode through rice fields and stopped beside the road for some photographs. We got to the villa by 6:30 PM, got changed and left for Anomali Coffee which is one of the best coffee shops in Ubud. After sipping on some great coffee, we felt recharged and entered the Ubud Arts Market for some shopping. As we were exploring the place, we found a shop selling some Balinese bags which got us hooked and we got down to some bargaining with the shopkeeper. The bags that had been quoted at IDR 100,000 were now at IDR 60,000 and we decided to make the purchase.

Satisfied with the shopping for the day, we hopped on the scooter to our final destination for the day, Naughty Nuri's. We had heard a lot about the BBQ Pork Ribs at this joint and were extremely excited to try it out and we were mind blown by the ribs. They were so well made that we ended up ordering 2 of them among three people along with some BBQ Chicken and some extra BBQ Sauce. All of this costed us IDR 408,000 of which every penny was worth it.

After cherishing the amazing food we had, we headed back to the villa and started practicing for the cliff dives we had lined up for the next day. The practice ended up in us jumping from the first floor of the villa into the swimming pool which was quite a lot of fun and got us prepared to jump from some height, little did we know that cliff that lay ahead were monstrous in comparison to what we were doing.